Friday, October 23, 2015

Why you need an Identity Protector

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America, and one of the major consequences of identity theft is a damaged credit score. Your credit score helps to determine if you are approved and your rates when you apply for financing. It can also come into play when you apply for a job or rent an apartment – it basically determines whether or not doing business with you is an attractive prospect or not to companies. Using an identity protector is an effective way to keep yourself looking good to companies and keep your prospects open for the future.

An identity protector works by monitoring your credit report and public records and alerting you to certain changes. This is one of the best ways to detect identity theft. If someone were to open an account in your name, it would show up on your credit report; but if you were not monitoring your credit report with an identity protector, you may not even discover the theft until you apply for financing yourself and are unjustly turned down.

If you are not convinced of the importance of using an identity protector, here are some worst-case scenarios of how identity theft can affect lives:

One law-abiding citizen whose social security number had been mistakenly assigned to a murder suspect didn’t find out until he investigated why he had been turned down for so many jobs. Unfortunately, he also lost his home before the mess was sorted out.

A woman in Massachusetts was denied insurance altogether because her medical record incorrectly indicated that her father had a hereditary disease.

A woman in California fresh out of law school showed up for her first day at a new job – only to be greeted by police officers and arrested. The employer’s background check had showed a warrant for her arrest so they contacted authorities. The warrant was for a crime that had been committed by someone who stole her identity.

An identity protector can alert you to certain changes, helping you to avoid becoming another worst-case scenario.